Training is easily perceived as a chore by inhouse web teams, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are 7 easily-implemented tips to make training fun and get your staff’s buy-in.

1. Buy them essential web books, videos or audio recordings. Create a mini reference library.

Many people are motivated to learn on their own, and enjoy self-study. By buying quality resources that your team can access, you’re helping them train themselves very affordably.

Compare the cost of a few good books or videos to the increase in traffic and conversion they can bring. Forget the stock market or bonds, self-education is the best investment you can make.

What’s more, if you invest in a few classics like Don’t Make Me Think, new additions to the team will be able to benefit as well. While a conference might help increase knowledge of a few team members, that typically won’t benefit the rest of the team. (It is possible, however. My fellow Quebec blogger Claude Malaison writes (in French) about organizations ‘building a collective memory‘ on his blog.)

2. Join your team members for group study sessions.

Joining your team for such study sessions shows a certain humility, and recognizes that you can learn from them as well.

As to group study, it’s value is borne out by the research. My mom’s got a masters in education and her thesis was about group work. One of the things she found out while writing her thesis is studies demonstrate that you remember 95% of what you teach others, but only 10% of what you read, which is why group study is so powerful.

3. Create contests. Pit teams against each other.

Training can be more than a responsibility, it can be a game. By making it a contest, the competitive spirits on your web team will find more motivation to learn.

As well, if your organization is large enough for it, you can pit parts of the web team against each other. This will encourage the stronger members of each team to help the weaker members improve their knowledge and skills.

Besides the main prize of bragging rights for the week, weekly winners might get to select Friday lunch (pizza vs souvlaki) and the monthly winners can pick an activity for the whole web team.

4. Recognize web team members for contributions to the business.

It’s worthwhile to test your team’s knowledge, as an intermediate goal. But ultimately the point is to help the business, so why not offer awards for “idea or improvement of the month”?

Give kudos to whoever contributed the idea generating the greatest conversion lift, or reducing the volume of support calls or boosting average order values etc. And you can make it a virtuous circle by making the award a new purchase of their choosing for the team’s reference library.

5. Give non analysts access to “read-only” analytics.

This way, people who’ve contributed to growing the traffic, conversion rate or other KPIs can login whenever and see the effects of their own work.

Craftsmen get to see feel and see the results of a job well done, and cooks get to eat their own food.

Shouldn’t your team get to see the effects of their work?

6. Build relationships with 1-on-1 time.

Spend time talking to team members individually over coffee or lunch, especially outside the office. People are more willing to help/listen if they like you.

It also means they’re more likely to bring up problems they’re having, since you’ll be more approachable. You get more bang for your training buck as a result. Compare that with the large numbers of high school graduates who read at a fifth grade level to understand what I mean…

7. Make the experience interactive and social.

No, I’m not referring to social media. I mean, social interaction like in the offline sense of speaking to someone 1-on-1.

I stole this trick from Dave Lloyd, SEO manager for Cisco, who used it at SMX West 2009.

Check out this video which my friend Chris Silver Smith filmed of me using it at SMX Advanced ‘09, and the audience’s enthusiastic response.

While Twitter search won’t let me dig up the tweets that got, take it from me that the feedback to that was very positive.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that training your web team doesn’t need to be drudgery, doesn’t need to be a chore. You can make it fun and enjoyable if you use the right techniques and the right motivation.

Gab Goldenberg wrote this post for TopHost.gr, a hosting company that focuses on shared web hosting. You can find Gab on Twitter @GabGoldenberg.

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

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One of the books I looked forward to reading this year was Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik. I’ve hesitated making this post because I met Avinash at SES San Jose earlier this year, I sat in on one of his sessions, was in talks to get involved in Market Motive with him and a few other people. He’s a good speaker (see video below) and a very nice guy, but the book just was pretty disappointing for me.

I’ve been using web analytics for quite some time, I remember taking some very expensive training classes with webtrends, back before the program became so outrageously overpriced it bordered on ridiculous. Understanding I had a firm base for web analytics I was fully prepared to gloss over and skip some of the introductory chapters.

For me the book just never delivered. First off it was wordy, much wordier than it needed to be. I’d much rather have a 60 page book that costs $75 without the fluff and gives me only the info, as opposed to a 400 page book that’s 75% longer than it needs to be and costs $30. However that’s a personal preference from someone who lives in a time pressed sound bite world.

Secondly the book tends to really focus on conversion based ecommerce sites. Since I tend to run primarily adsense and affiliate websites, whole chapters were entirely useless for me. Run single or multiple sites where you have access to the full conversion data, you will probably get more value out of it.

Additionally there was very little new, and no leading edge analysis methodology in the book for me. To be completely honest I get more insight looking at my own crazyegg reports.

Lastly there were two things in book that drove me batty to the point of wanting to throw the book out of the nearest window in a fit of rage. First on page 206 there is section on SEO where he says black hat tactics are illegal … yes illegal. Breaking search engine guidelines is not illegal, you may find the practice morally reprehensible, but please don’t give Google any law making authority it doesn’t have. This kind of deification of Google, or any other company, pisses me off to no end.

Second is the continual reference for employing analysts who have college degrees. Just because you sat through 4 or 6 years of college is no indication you have any clue or idea what the hell you are talking about. I’ve been exposed to numerous college grads over the years and I’ve seen absolutely zero correlation between having a diploma and knowing your ass from your elbow. There’s a difference between being educated and being intelligent. In fact I’d make the argument the college grads with zero real world experience are more dangerous, because they have some delusion that they might actually know what they are talking about, when in fact they usually don’t.

So if you’ve never taken a course on analytics, or are in charge of a single conversion driven ecommerce website you’ll probably learn something from this book. If you have any meaningful experience with with analytics or deal mostly with affiliate and adsense sites skip it, it’s not worth your time.

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

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Earlier last year Greg dropped me a note about two books I should read. One of them was Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. I added them to my Amazon Wish List but in absent minded professor form I completely forgot about them. When I sat in on Greg’s session at Pubcon he mentioned them again which reminded me they were out there, so put them on my Christmas list and started reading shortly after the new year.

Linked is a book about networks. social networks, web networks, link networks, virus networks, and all sort of other networks. Being the social media maven that I am the book was right up my alley. Books like the Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell are fascinating to me. I really like looking at the inner working of how and why ideas spread and understand the mechanics of what’s happening. Linked walks over and tries to open the hood and take a look at the engine responsible for the movement.

In the book the authors took a long look at how websites are linked together, which I found really interesting. The book is from 2003 so the web linking data is a little old. The book also came before the blogging revolution had caught on so the sites they were traveling were less interlinked. One of the things the authors discovered was that there were 19 degrees of separation between any two websites. This absolutely floored me. I thought the web was a heck of a lot closer together than the real life world of “six degrees of Kevin Bacon”. Maybe it’s just because I live in the incestuous blog echo chamber of SEO blogs and endless memes but I’d really like to know if that’s changed (anything you can share senor cutts?).

The book also looks at people networks, for example the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon phenomenon. We learn that Bacon’s not the most connected actor in Hollywood. He’s pretty far down the list, but I’ll leave that surprise for book.

While most of this book is a pretty easy read there are parts where it gets a bit heady and goes into some math and science. It’s harder than Freakonomics but not as difficult as A New Kind of Science. While it’s not a requirement to understand things like power laws you will get more out of the book if you are willing to slog through and try to wrap your brain around the concepts.

So should you read this book? If you are interested in just using the social web for fun and profit until the next thing comes along, then probably not. If you want to understand why the social web works the way it does then yes. If you want to get a deeper understanding how links work in the web and non web world then yes you should. If you want to learn that hubs and connectors mean something in places other the webmaster forums, then yes you should read this book.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

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So I’m finishing up Malcom Gladwell’s Tipping Point before my trip to Pubcon next week where’s he’s the keynote speaker. Now if you are serious about real marketing (not the push button kind) this book is required reading, you really get an understanding about how viral marketing works. Which leads me to one of the biggest viral marketing tools that should be on everyone’s mind Digg.

Two of the kinds of people Gladwell mentions are Mavens, and Connectors. While my explanations are nowhere near as good as Gladwell’s I’ll give it a shot. Connectors are people who know lot’s of people. My ex-brother-in-law is a connector. We went on vacation once to Hershey Park and he ran into someone he knew from New York. We went to vacation in Virginia and again he ran into someone he knew. All of us have at least one or two connectors in our lives, we call them up when we need “a guy” and he knows somebody. Mavens are sort of the opposite, mavens know lot’s of stuff. It’s not just lot’s of stuff it’s in depth passionate knowledge of stuff. The thing that makes them great is they are “infectious” with their knowledge they want share it with you and make sure you use it (sometimes to the point of being rather annoying about it). Now when a maven passes something along through a connector we reach that magic moment when something takes on a life of it’s own and goes viral.

This connector maven relationship is one of the things that made Digg so successful. Mavens come in share links about web pages they are passionate about. Digg takes on the role of connector and alerts other mavens to the idea, and things move at internet speed. Because mavens have a voracious knowledge for things they are passionate about there is no such thing as information overload. Regular folks would have gotten tired of CSS, Ajax and Web 2.0 articles a long time ago, but true digg mavens remain unsatiated.

How can you use this to your advantage, by giving them what they want. Build you dating site with cool css tabs and write a tutorial on how you did it. Make your real estate site all web 2.0-ish. Appeal to everyone’s desire to be the next ‘kareoke William Hung‘. You may think it’s dumb, but really does it matter?

Heck if it really does matter to you 6 months later when everyone’s forgotten about ‘your next big thing’, 301 all of the incoming links to your herbal phentermine site (oops did I just say that …).

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

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Ok This is not technically an SEO type post, but since it did help me get my act together and get more work done I think it qualifies for going on this blog. I’ve always had a pretty decent memory and have been able to recall obscure little details without fail. I rarely forgot things and had decent ability to juggle multiple tasks at the same time. When I left Company X and went out on my own, things got more complicated and there were more balls in the air, but I still was able to keep up. However once the kids got old enough to be involved in activities and the work/school/family/activities schedules thing got all mixed up, my ability to keep track of it all grew progressively worse, and in late 2005 we had a mental and schedule meltdown.

It has been said by many who have come before me, you never are really going to change until you hit the bottom. It was at that point I came across Getting Things Done (no aff) by David Allen. Now I will admit his plans are a bit radical, and if I hadn’t been completely overwhelmed I never would have given his stuff a try. I will also admit I am slightly particular so I’m not implementing his plan exactly but in modified format.

I live in my email client (thunderbird) and browser (firefox). I’m also not big on paper (I avoid it if possible) preferring electronic versions, so my implementation is a bit digital centric.

• The first key was realizing checking your email every 5/10/15 minutes is not helpful, in fact it’s distracting and disruptive. I tried every 2 hours, then 90 minutes, and settled on checking no more than every 60 minutes.
• Next off I stopped autosubscribing and getting email notifications to forum threads I posted in, again less distractions. If I want to follow a thread or blog post where I made a comment I tag it with “follow” in del.icio.us and check on it tomorrow.
• Next I stopped checking my feeds for updates every 5 minutes. In the morning when I read my email, when I am eating lunch, that type of thing. I’m checking no more than 4 – 6 times a day now, again less interruptions.
• My email box has 6 folders Action, Hold, Notification, Respond, Waiting and Archive. It took a few days to get the rules to sort things for me as they come in, but now I know I only have to scan the unsorted inbox and action items right away, everything else can wait, as long as you run through it once or twice a day.
• The 2 minute rule, if something comes in and you can complete it in 2 minutes, no matter how trivial just do it. This one really is key, it encompasses the touch a piece of paper once rule. When you have a long block of time you can even expand it to 5 or 10 minutes, any longer is dangerous. Do it, delegate it or defer it, a concept to live by.
• Set up an ‘idea incubator’ or ‘things to think about’ file for all the crazy ideas you get. If you post them there you won’t have to worry about forgetting them. Review it once a month and cross out things that no longer make any sense
• Most forums and newsgroups have a new threads, recent posts, or posts since your last visit link, use them they will save you time.
• Forum and newsgroup discussions are helpful, debates are time wasters. Stay involved in discussions, remove yourself from debates no matter how tempting it is to respond
• Check your backups and make sure they are working. Archive monthly or weekly copies to disc. Check that you can restore the files once or twice a year. Store the CD’s in a media friendly fire resistant safe
• Organize and store your passwords somewhere in hard copy format. You may get hit by a bus and someone else will need that information. I use roboform
• Firefox, Thunderbird, and Roboform all have portable versions that can run from a USB jump drive. Keep a sync’d copy in your safe for safekeeping, or bring it with you when you might need to use a computer and lugging your laptop isn’t an option
• Consolidate your domain names into a few registrars. Log into them once a month and check to make sure nothing is expiring.
• Have a list of all the domains you own check them once a month. This helps you find hosts who forget to renew or send you renewal notices with no domain names and from email addresses like nobody@noreply.com
• Get some decent spyware and adware software, run it regularly
• Having a backup development server is different than having backups. If your development server crashes you can slide your backup development server into place in 5 minutes instead of trying to figure out the configuration settings again.

So I may not be using the official GTD methodology, but I am using enough of it in a way that fits my life and helps me GET MORE THINGS DONE, and that’s what really matters.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

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Had to do a little cleaning around the “office” this weekend and move a few books into the garage storage. So in the first of what will be an occasional series I’ll tell you what’s on my bookshelf. I’ll divide things up into different categories, but remember all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. If you want a full review of one of these books drop a note in the comments. Hey why not put a post on your blog about whats on your bookshelf.

Web Development, HTML, CSS and Web Design

Don’t Make Me Think: Steve Krug
While I still have the first edition I hear there is a second edition now available, not sure how much is new and if I need both copies, but if you are involved in web development in anyway this is book is must.

Designing with Web Standards: Jeffery Zeldman
This book changed my life, plain and simple. I thought I got CSS, but it wasn’t until read this book that I REALLY GOT CSS! This book changed the way I design and build websites, and I’m a better designer/programmer/coder because of it.

Layout Index: Jim Krause
This is small pocket sized book filled with layout examples. I would have liked a little more in depth material, but an OK book none the less

Color Index: Jim Krause
A companion to Layout Index above. The book is nothing more that a collection of complimentary and contrasting color schemes for printed works, logos or websites. While most of the book is for print the end section has web safe colors. You can convert some of the colors from RGB values but sometimes they are a little bit off.

Logo design for Small Businesses: Dan Antonelli
Created for the physical world and not the virtual world this book covers the basics of logos, typography, and fonts. If you are working on designing things with a more polished feel and want to use the logo or type style to help tell the message and sell the package you’ll learn a lot from this book.

Zen of CSS Design: Dave Shea
This is the companion book to the popular website CSS Zen Garden. This book isn’t a tutorial per se, but an insight into how some of the designs came about and choices the creator went through to get there.

Cascading Style Sheets – The Definitive Guide: Eric Meyer
A classic from the O’Reilly publishers, nitty gritty detail about CSS tags and properties, lots of great examples in the book.

Information Architecture: Louis Rosenfeld
Not the easiest book in the world to read but lots of important concepts to understand.

Webmaster in a Nutshell: Stephen Spainhour
Other than the character codes not used that much anymore.

HTML – The Definitive Guide: Chuck Musciano
I used to use this all the time but hardly ever any more. Either I’m carrying all the HTML around in my head or I can find things easier online. It does look nice having O’Reilly books together though.

Non Designers Design Book: Robin Williams
First of no it’s not that Robin Williams, OK. Another book written for the physical world, but with carryover value. It talks about principles of design and what makes good design. There are examples and problems in the book and if you actually do them you will learn something. You will also learn to take a look at things you encounter in a more design analytical way.

Big Book of Design Ideas: David Carter
Yet another book from the physical world. It’s a large collection of design elements from a wide variety of printed sources. Use it as a springboard for any design projects you might work on.

Homepage Usability: Jakob Nielsen
I picked this book up recently and have to say it needs updating. The information is not only old but the homepages are so … Y2K bleeding edge it’s funny.

Programming

The Tao of Programming: Geoffrey James
Back when I worked in programming I hung around with a geeky crowd. One of the programmers left to become a lawyer, and placed this book in my custody. His instructions were simple “be true and follow the code“. It may be old but still a classic.

Advanced PHP for Web Professionals: Christopher Cosintino
At the beginning of this year I had never worked in PHP this one of two books that helped me get it into gear.

PHP and MySQL Web Development: Luke Welling
If you want to get into the nuts and bolts of PHP and MySQL development this is an excellent book, lots of real word applicable examples.

Professional ASP for Webmasters: Alex Homer
A shame Wrox Publishing went belly up, they used to put out some decent very teachable books. Haven’t done any ASP since picking up PHP, so this one may be moving on.

Web Site Optimization: Michael Tracy
I’m old enough to remember when dial up was the only way to get on the net, and code bloat could kill a website. This is a lesson that many of today’s designers who have been spoon fed with a fat T1 would do well to relearn (hmm, I sense a future blog post coming).

Designing with Javascript: Nick Hienle
Another classic that doesn’t get much use anymore. I really favor server side solutions whenever possible as opposed to client side, still a good book none the less.

Search and Marketing

Search: John Battelle
A must read if you are in the search business. I enjoyed the second half more than first, and a very readable book. I finished it on the plane ride to and from Vegas recently.

Permission Marketing: Seth Godin
My first and still favorite Seth Godin book.

Cluetrain Manifesto: Christopher Locke
Lot’s of over the top rhetoric, but this is still required reading if you want to get it post Y2K business world.

Non-Work

Smithsonian Institution Animal: Don E. Wilson
If you have kids who watch the Disney Channel this is as close as you will ever come to Stanley’s ‘The Great Big Book of Everything‘. Not very deep but very wide about all sorts of animals. (tip for the search folk packed with lots and lots of great really obscure seldom used Latin names of animal genus).

The Art of the Market: Bob Tamarkin
Scripophilly – the hobby of collecting old stock certificates. There’s some debate over the facts in this book but it still serves as the best resource for info and pictures of old stocks. Maybe on day I’ll write about it and post pictures of some of my stocks.

Chronicles of the Pharaoh’s: Peter Clayton
Egyptology is another hobby of mine, and this is a great book. Not to light that you feel cheated and not to deep that yo feel overwhelmed, an excellent all around book about ancient Egypt and the Pharaoh’s.

Bullfinch’s Mythology: Richard Martin
Another great in depth reference book for old world mythos, legends and lore (for all you search folk find unique seldom used names of god, demi-gods, heroes and deities).

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Graywolf’s Bookshelf December 2005

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I started Call to Action (noaff) and looked at the receipt and realize I was remiss in sending out a thank you. Thank you to Darren and Brandy of WebmasterRadio.fm fro ending me a free copy back in May … I’m so ashamed.

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

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